It's a special tournament for me because I've been following tennis since Antwerp 1990...
IMO it's the most underrated tournament ever from historical point of view because has been classified as an EXHO! :o The official ATP stats don't include Ivan Lendl or John McEnroe's triumphs in Antwerp, and I think it's harmful for them because it was a very solid tournament, tough to win, something completely different than exhibition tournaments for 8 players... Both Lendl and McEnroe played 5 times in the finals but the tournament had its third hero - Miloslav Mecir, who played 3 times there, always finishing as a runner-up.
What's the point of including to players' activities such an "epic tournament" like 'Pepsi Grand Slam' at Boca Raton which was held in the late 70's and early 80's, involving only 4 players and a champion needed to win just two "best of three" matches :D The ATP website is full of mess and some official numbers misleading... Anyway I've collected the Antwerp results of years 1982-1991 (in years 1992-1998 points of the event were counted to the ATP ranking) which weren't available anywhere in a codified form. I haven't unfortunately found all 25 scorelines for each tournament, nevertheless I can show you all the QF-, SF- and finals.

For those who don't remember that event: always in late Autumn; indoor carpet; court without the tramelines in years 1989-91; until 1990 no tie-break at 6-all in the deciding set; the final played in "the best of five" format; 24-player draw - the best indoor guys of the European tournaments were invited each year + 'wild cards'; 8 seeded players had "bye" in the first round, so a seeded winner supposed to win 4 matches. The prize money surpassed twofold regular indoor tournaments. A 3-time champion within 5 years could receive a gold/diamond racquet, valued at about 1 million dollars - Lendl took it in 1985 and was two wins away from taking the second one in 1991, in turn McEnroe was three wins away to do it in 1989.

# B.Borg was semi-retired then (only one tournament played in 1982 - Monte Carlo 7 months earlier).
# The same week Australian Open ($450,000) was held - J.Kriek beat S.Denton in straight sets in the final :lol:
# The only edition with 12 participants

# J.McEnroe and G.Ivanisevic didn't play.
# What an irony!
For the first time in tournament history, triumphed an unseeded player although won 4 matches like champions of the previous editions. Krickstein's luck was amazing not only because Becker gave him walkover (stomach virus). Aaron beat in the 1st round local, rather useless player Bart Wuyts, and Patrick McEnroe in 2R; P.Mac replaced Edberg who was the best player in the world at the time (no qualies in that tourney so technically P.Mac wasn't a "lucky loser"). Krickstein's route to the title looks like a joke - and it all occurred at the probably hardest draw in the tournament history! Gustafsson seeded 8th, was No. 12 in the world...

Kolya

02-26-2010, 05:26 AM

Great read.

Echoes

02-28-2010, 11:04 PM

Many thanks for this thread.:worship: I intended to post one about the ECC. I wanted confirmation about the fact that only Lendl took the Diamond racket.

I've followed it since Krajicek's win in 1992 (that means since it is an ATP event). I think it was moved to february back then, wasn't it? I can tell you that it was a major sporting event in our country. Everybody knew about it here, even if you weren't a tennis fan.

Voo de Mar

02-28-2010, 11:28 PM

It was moved to February for years 1996-1998 (last 3 editions).

Echoes

03-01-2010, 11:49 PM

OK. Thank you !

Voo de Mar

03-23-2010, 10:38 PM

I've added first and second rounds. Unfortunately some scorelines are missing, some participants as well, anyway here are collected all scorelienes from 1982, 86 & 88 :yeah:

WilliamWallace

10-25-2010, 11:53 AM

Very nice, thanks for putting that together. I got hold of the 91 semi (Becker v Lendl) on dvd the other day. Great memories.

ECC !!!!!!!!!!! , was looking for some of the older results not so long ago and couldn't find anything..

Voo, i've got a missing result for you

1989 2nd round ; Mayotte(6) bt. Forget 3-6 6-3 7-5

(long live the old scrapbooks)

LazorRamone

01-01-2011, 09:39 PM

...

Voo de Mar

01-02-2011, 08:47 AM

Voo de Mar, you are half right that official ATP stats do not include Lendl or McEnroe's triumphs in Antwerp. The tournament took place in Wembley before it moved to Antwerp (and ATP stats include these triumphs).

The tournament changed its profile in 1992 from exhibition to ATP tournament, replacing the tournament in Wembley. Antwerp's triumphs are counted for players' activity for the years 1992-1998.